From hot to cold

Oh my goodness! It is hot hot hot in Arizona. There are many amazing things to see and hikes to take there, but alas none of them were done by me. Another stop to make when it is not so hot. The one place I did stop was at the San Xavier Mission in Tucson. It started in 1692, long before there were thirteen colonies. Two things I did not understand about the mission…I mean it was an amazingly beautiful oasis in the desert. It’s not hard to see why the natives of the area wanted to join up to be in such a place. The insides were incredibly ornate with many statues (sadly missing limbs from age). But here’s the thing I’ve never seen in any other church – the statues were wearing clothes. Real clothes that someone had made for them recently and put on the wooden statues. Now to me that’s a little odd. A statue of Mary was wearing this ornate white lace gown and another statue of a man was wearing a bright red button up shirt. Hmmm…

This is a picture of the side little chapel where you can light candles for Mary. There were more statues of Mary in there than I had ever seen. And the number of candles burning made it so hot that just standing in the door you could feel the waves of heat escaping. I couldn’t even go in.



So from Tucson I headed west to San Diego. And as my friend said that require a drive through Egypt. The drive takes you through a desert in the true sense of the word…rolling white sand dunes and the occasional palm tree. As I was driving, I pulled over to a rest stop on the Arizona California border which was only about 40 miles north of Mexico. This was the rest stop – a sandy clearing with three of the oldest looking port-o-potties I had ever seen. I decided to hold it.

I think this deems a side little story, because it has happened to me twice on this trip which is a little crazy if you ask me. I was in Missouri or Kansas, I don’t remember, but either way I was way out in the middle of nowhere with nothing around and I had to go to the bathroom so badly. There was nothing in sight except the flat bed truck driving in front of me with portable toilets on it. If that’s some sort of twisted cosmic humor I don’t know what is. The other time happened when I was stuck in traffic and couldn't go anywhere. And then a big truck carrying portable toilets got on the road next to me. Not so funny!

San Diego was so much fun!! Also crazy that thus far California is the coolest place heat wise that I have been. Would not have guessed that. I made it to San Diego for opening day at Del Mar racetrack. So much fun. I felt somewhat prepared as I had stopped and taken a tour of Churchill downs when I was in Kentucky. I went to opening day with a good friend of mine and her family. It is a tradition for them. Opening day at Del Mar is a tradition in and of itself. Every one gets dressed up wearing hats in that very My Fair Lady way. There were some of the craziest looking hats I have ever seen. There were hats with fountains, plants, buildings, and other craziness coming off them. Here are a few of my favorites.







I did not go so crazy, but I did wear a hat. I also tried my hand at betting. And sadly after five races I was 40 cents down. I’m such a big spender. Although, my first horse won the race and I won $10. Such a feeling of glory!